


The Invitation

by Devilc



Series: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [2]
Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse, JSA, Starman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devilc/pseuds/Devilc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Shade gets an unexpected invitation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> After writing "Remembrances", The Shade showed back up and began dictating more stories.

My semi-weekly afternoon visit with Jack Knight ended with him handing me a small envelope addressed to me, care of him. Neat block printing in a man's handwriting, not a woman's. With a shrug, I opened it. An engraved invitation inviting me to Jay and Joan Garrick's 61st wedding anniversary. A time and a date. "Our House" for a location. RSVP. No address or phone number, of course. A short note in the same meticulous handwriting at the bottom. "Hope to see you -- Jay".

I showed it to Jack who raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"I don't suppose you could supply an address or phone number? It's been nearly 50 years since I last called on the Garricks."

Jack rolled his eyes and groaned. "No, actually, I can't. Last week, Teddy kinda, sorta, thought he'd make daddy really happy by sticking the refrigerator magnets to the side of my computer  I lost everything."

"You don't have a backup?"

"I somehow managed to make a corrupt  and how the hell do you know about computer backups? You don't own a computer  do you?!"

I thought of several answers to that question before saying, "No, I prefer to play solitaire in analog mode. I do, however, read the newspapers. You might try that some time"

Jack, ever the brat supreme, tisked at me and said, "Newspapers. That's so 1600s. Get with new." Considering he deals antiques for a living.... Reaching for his phone, he offered to dial the Star Spangled Kid (apparently she calls on a regular basis for cosmic rod technical support) but I had conceived of a better  well, a more amusing way to contact Jay Garrick.

And I daresay that materializing the next day in great swirls of shadow on top of the conference table right in the middle of the weekly JSA meeting  well, call me petty, but startling Wildcat so badly that he fell over backwards in his chair certainly brought a smile to _my_ face. At any rate, Jay had me hustled out the door and into the hall before anything involving collateral damage could happen. I must mention I rattled the man so that he actually swore at me for several moments. (Who knew he had a mouth like a sailor?)

Butter would not have melted in any of my orifices as I made a completely saccharine pro-forma apology, proffered the invite and said, "By the by, might I have a home address now that I have responded as requested?"

He blinked back with a pen and wrote it down on the back of the card. "Did you have to cause such a damn ruckus?" he growled. (I imagine that feathers were still rather ruffled in the boardroom.)

I smiled. "When am I not theatrical? Besides, had I walked through the front door and asked at the receptionist's desk, the lot of you would have stormed downstairs, primed for battle. I thought I would save you the trouble of rising from your seats."

"Well, for Chrissakes, don't even think of crashing the annual Thanksgiving dinner. Last year we had enough entertainment to last us a decade."

"Please," I sniffed, "I do have manners."

He rolled his eyes. "That's debatable."

As snootily as I could  without managing to laugh, of course  I replied, "I said I had manners, not morals."

"Dress is casual, by the way." He zoomed back to the meeting.

Most amusing afternoon in quite some time, really.

Now, what to wear? And what to bring?


End file.
